Facebook moves beyond ‘male’ and ‘female’ with custom gender options

Facebook today announced that users in the US now have the ability to select a custom gender for their Timeline profile pages.

Aside from Male or Female, Facebook now offers “Other,” a new setting that lets users choose between ten gender options such as “cisgender,” “transgender,” and “intersex,” and define which pronoun they’d like to be referred to as — he / his, she / her, or they / their. Moreover, Facebook also now lets you define exactly who can see the Gender section on your profile.

Facebook says it worked closely with LGBT activist groups to choose the new profile options. The social network hasn’t provided a timeline on when the new option will roll out to the rest of its users outside the US.

To commemorate the occasion, Facebook has hung rainbow-colored flags (pictured) from a catwalk at its Menlo Park, CA headquarters.

“We recognize that some people face challenges sharing their true gender identity with others, and this setting gives people the ability to express themselves in an authentic way,”Facebook wrote on its Diversity page.